It rubs the cardpunch on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.

This kind of thing goes back WAY further than that.

I've got a book from the mid-80's with a whole lot of C64 robotics projects in it, which features a lego pen plotter. The paper handling is more convenient - that project was a drum plotter - but otherwise, it's a variation on that basic design. In some ways it's both a step up and a step down from that project - this rasterizes everything, whereas the old C64 project could draw non-jaggy lines in any direction.

I'd say the paper handling alone makes it a step up from the C64 project in terms of convenience and usability, though. Plus, any advancements over the Mindstorms project make it worthy of attention IMHO - it's great that we can all learn from other tinkerers.

The PS2 has also been out for a lot longer than the Wii, with some super-low prices towards the end that were cheap enough to entice the late-adopters and the "I want to play $PS2ONLYTITLE - guess I'd better get one of those too" gamers.

It's also been chippable and able to take a hard drive rom loader for a lot longer than the Wii has. Hey... I wonder how much THAT has to do with the fact that Wii owners are only buying two titles a year?

Interestingly, in Australia, Westpac has made a cynical grab for their share of the merchant fees by FORCING customers (like me) to have Debit Mastercards instead of regular ATM cards - they won't admit it, of course, but a free additional revenue stream for them has to be a huge attraction. My response, since they wouldn't let me keep my non-MC card, is to not use Mastercard side of it at all. What benefit does it give me? Nothing - it can take a few days for mastercard transactions to be properly reflected in the balance, unlike EFTPOS transations which are just about instantaneous, and I rely on that balance as a sanity-check for how much I have left in any particular week... plus I'm not the only one with access to that account, so unaccounted-for pending transactions could cause some embarrassment.

They make a huge deal out of how there's no limit to the number of Mastercard transactions per month, unlike EFTPOS ones, and cite it as a customer benefit. Their marketing drivel that came with the card stated how wonderful this was for the consumer, letting you use your money how and when you like with fewer fees (they helpfully neglect to mention that the merchant has to pay for the privilege of accepting Mastercard). They tried to avoid the subject of how somebody with the 16 digits on the front and three of those on the back could reach into my account without a PIN from the other side of the world, and wouldn't give me a plain ATM card instead - saying that it was done "because most customers want them", and they couldn't reverse it once the card had been converted over. Fuckers. Should have taken it to the Banking Ombudsman, but I just couldn't be bothered at the time.

I refuse to use it on-line or use the Mastercard facility; that's what the credit card and Paypal are for.

No, I suspect it was actually the other lot. That's what happens when you breach the terms of the Third Benthic Treaty...

...if I found myself suffering from methanol poisoning, and I had a bottle of vanilla essence or a tube of hand cleaner close by, I'd probably mix it with a cup of water and squirt it up there just after calling the ambulance. I believe intravenous alcohol solutions are used in hospital to treat methanol poisoning, but rectal administration is about the best I think anyone could manage safely by themselves with ordinary household items.

....FSVO "manage safely", of course. It's also somewhat disturbing that I can come up with a valid reason for a self-administered alcohol enema.

...and now that the cat is out of the bag, there will undoubtedly be students who will do all of that AND suck on a bong full of basil whenever they see the light come on. Entrap the bastards! "Let's see your evidence that I was using marijuana".

IngSoc is now free from crimethink.